To Our Global Family,

January is a month of hope, as we embark on a new year with visions and refreshed resolve for improving ourselves and our world.

It is during this month that we also celebrate the birthday and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. — an icon of love, peace, and progressive action to achieve our nation’s promise of equality and justice for all. A believer in redemptive love, he continues to be an inspiration and an example for me and for others who seek to make positive change in the world, to address inequities, and to ensure human rights and dignity for others.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at press conference in 1964.

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – 1964

Like many community leaders across the world today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was young (just 26 years old) and held a vision for a world released from division and passive acceptance of the status quo. He helped bring focus to the plight of fellow citizens and to energize support for action and structural change to end racial and economic injustices.

“Dr. King continues to be an inspiration and an example for me and for others who seek to make positive change in the world, to address inequities, and to ensure human rights and dignity for others.”

I will be forever grateful for his tirelessness and that of the coalition of civil rights leaders and supporters whose actions changed the world. I value this time each year to reflect on the life, words and wisdom of Dr. King and to consider how I might contribute to a more just and peaceful world. I hope I do so through my role at CMMB by working to improve the lives of the poor and to increase access to healthcare for those in the developing world. And it is only possible to do so because of support of donors and partners who choose to participate in our work.

Director Medical Donation Program Darnelle

Darnelle Bernier – Vice President, CMMB Medical Donations Program

An inspiration for me is a favorite sentiment Dr. King shared in his letter from the Birmingham Jail, where he was held following his arrest at a rally to end segregation at lunch counters: “I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Coming together in peace and with the intention for justice for all, the future will be bright.

Darnelle Bernier
Vice President, Medical Donations Program
CMMB – Healthier Lives Worldwide